How can the NHS make care better for people with heart and lung conditions?

The NHS wants to improve cardiovascular care for people around the country. It’s included in the NHS Long Term Plan, which local NHS services will use to inform the changes they need to make for their communities. Now it’s time for people to speak up about how they want future services where they live to look.

When it comes to care for people with heart and lung conditions, the NHS is focusing on four areas. It wants to get better at

1. Prevention: including helping more people stop smoking, targeted support for people with type 2 diabetes or hypertension, nutrition training for medical schools, and better alcohol-related care.
2. Diagnosis: including help for pharmacists and nurses working in the community to identify and treat people with high-risk conditions such as atrial fibrillation, and a greater focus on detecting and diagnosing respiratory problems earlier.
3. Early treatment: including a national network of community first responders and defibrillators to help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028, improved care for people who have had a stroke, including the development of specialist stroke units, and a focus on providing care, where appropriate, for people with pneumonia in the community, to save them from unnecessary hospital stays.
4. Rehabilitation: including better access and awareness of cardiac rehabilitation services, to prevent premature deaths, improved support for people following a stroke and exercise and education programmes for those with lung conditions.